e in
accentuation or tone of voice alters the meaning of a whole sentence.
Whatever is incoherent in my description must be referred to the fact of
my never having attained to a full comprehension of the subject.

So far however as I could collect anything certain, they appeared to have
two entirely distinct currencies, each under the control of its own banks
and mercantile codes. The one of them (the one with the musical banks)
was supposed to be _the_ system, and to give out the currency in which
all monetary transactions should be carried on. As far as I could see,
all who wished to be considered respectable, did keep a certain amount of
this currency at these banks; nevertheless, if there is one thing of
which I am more sure than another it is that the amount so kept was but a
very small part of their possessions. I think they took the money, put
it into the bank, and then drew it out again, repeating the process day
by day, and keeping a certain amount of currency for this purpose and no
other, while they paid the expenses of the bank with the other coinage. I
am sure the managers and cashiers of the musical banks were not paid in
their own currency. Mr. Nosnibor used to go to these musical banks, or
rather to the great mother bank of the city, sometimes but not very
often. He was a pillar of one of the other kind of banks, though he held
some minor office also in these. The ladies generally went alone; as
indeed was the case in most families, except on some few great annual
occasions.

I had long wanted to know more of this strange system, and had the
greatest desire to accompany my hostess and her daughters. I had seen
them go out almost every morning since my arrival, and had noticed that
they carried their purses in their hands, not exactly ostentatiously, yet
just so as that those who met them should see whither they were going. I
had never yet been asked to go with them myself.

It is not easy to convey a person's manner by words, and I can hardly
give any idea of the peculiar feeling which came upon me whenever I saw
the ladies in the hall, with their purses in their hands, and on the
point of starting for the bank. There was a something of regret, a
something as though they would wish to take me with them, but did not
like to ask me, and yet as though I were hardly to ask to be taken. I
was determined however to bring matters to an issue with my hostess about
my going with them, and after a lit